Articles by: James Swackhammer

James is a SOLIDWORKS Technical Support Application Expert based in the Javelin Oakville head office

SOLIDWORKS Default File Locations

solidworks default file locations

In your home, do you have a chair or a spot that only you sit in and when others sit there you seem out of place, and possibly struggle for a second with what you should do? What about a parking spot at work, do…

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5 Quick Tips for SOLIDWORKS Part Template Creation

Save As SOLIDWORKS Part Template

Templates are the beginning to our design phase and are the equivalent to a cookie cutter. We want to start off on the correct foot every time, which will lead to increased efficiency and synergy throughout multiple SOLIDWORKS users. Below we will review some tips…

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Sheet Metal Corner Treatment

Sheet Metal corner treatment

I learned a while back (the hard way I might add), that when it comes to sheet metal and manufacturing, to have the corners as closed/close as possible. This is necessary because it will reduce the amount of welding and fill needed. If time is…

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How to Show Part Knurling in SOLIDWORKS – Part 3

SOLIDWORKS Knurling appearance can be added on a per face basis as shown in part 2 of my SOLIDWORKS Knurling series. The knurling appearance was applied along the entire cylindrical face until the radii starts a new face. What if you don’t want the appearance…

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How to Show Part Knurling in SOLIDWORKS – Part 2

In my previous SOLIDWORKS Knurling article, I promised this process would get much easier than being thrown into the deep end like in part 1. This is a kiddie pool in comparison. What I’m going to do in part 2 is very similar to what…

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How to Show Part Knurling in SOLIDWORKS – Part 1

SOLIDWORKS Knurling Part

We all know what knurling is, right? The most common use for knurling is to add grip to an otherwise slippery part. Using this is done on a lathe, turned with special bits or tooling. Now, how do we get knurling on a SOLIDWORKS part?…

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Adjusting the Weight/Mass Accuracy in a SOLIDWORKS Drawing

SOLIDWORKS Drawing Weight Accuracy

In this article I’ll show how to change the numeric precision on the weight/mass linked annotation in a SOLIDWORKS drawing. If you are anything like me, you might play this game when you’re bringing your groceries in from your car, the game is: trying to…

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SOLIDWORKS Inspection 2021 Templates

SOLIDWORKS Inspection Templates

SOLIDWORKS Inspection 2021 has some template improvements. Before these improvements were made, when making an Inspection report you would click the “Add” button for a template, same when exporting to an Excel sheet you would “Add” template and then choose where to save.  This year,…

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SOLIDWORKS 2021 Inspection VDA Balloons

VDA balloons have been around for quite some time and were introduced for SOLIDWORKS in the last four to five years for SOLIDWORKS Inspection. Although, when introduced there wasn’t much functionality other than for placing them. Rotating VDA balloon For SOLIDWORKS Inspection 2021 we now…

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